Gallium

About Gallium (Ga)

Symbol: Ga Atomic number: 31 Atomic weight: 69.723 Element category: post-transition metal Gallium is a soft, silvery metal, and elemental gallium is a brittle solid at low temperatures, and melts at 29.76 °C (85.57 °F), slightly above room temperature. Thus gallium is often used as a temperature reference point because of its melting point. Gallium easily alloys with most metals, so it has been used to create low melting alloys. It is also used as a doping material for semiconductors and has been used to produce solid-state items like transistors and light emitting diodes. For gallium compounds, gallium arsenide can produce laser light directly from electricity, gallium nitride is used to produce blue and violet LEDs and diode lasers.